Commonwealth Report Legislators Method

House · Democrat

Juana B. Matias

Former member, served 2017–2018 in the sessions covered here · 16th Essex

Data through FY2026; built October 19, 2026.

Residence

Lawrence

First elected

House 2016

Left office

did not seek reelection in 2018 (not a candidate in the 2018 primary or general election for this seat); term ended January 2, 2019

Seats held, General Courts 189–194 (the FY2017–FY2026 budgets)
SessionChamberDistrictLinesNote
190th (2017–18)House16th Essex2011 lines

Posts and stipends

No stipend payments to Juana B. Matias are recorded for 2016–2026.

Posts and stipends by session (stipends by calendar year)
SessionPostsFirst yearSecond year
190th (2017–18)No post recorded$0$0

Posts: the Legislature’s leadership and roster records as compiled for this project; where those name no post, the member’s committee chair, vice-chair and ranking roles from the Legislature’s member profiles. Stipends: additional compensation in the Comptroller’s payroll data (CTHRU dataset 9ttk-7vz6), 2016–2026; 2026 is the year to date. Stipends for 2015 are not available. Base salary is not included.

The district

16th Essex on its 2011 lines: 1 city or town, 48,116 residents (2020).

Lawrence

Percentages are each place’s share of the district’s 2020 residents; for a town split between districts, the share of the town inside this one follows.

Population-weighted Fairness Index of the district’s cities and towns: 81 for all state aid and 54 for discretionary money (50 is a fair share).

Local earmarks are counted three ways. District money uses the first, clauses that name a place in the district; the second table adds organizations located in the district (placed in the district) and state facilities located there (everything placed). Three ways to count a local earmark.

District money, first measure: enacted earmarks in clauses naming a place in the district, by session (district money, not the member’s)
SessionDistrictDollarsIn corrective clausesPer resident per budget, rankWithout corrective clauses, rank
190th (2017–18)16th Essex$518,000$0$5.38 · 48th of 160$5.38 · 48th of 160

District money is where enacted earmarks land, by the place a clause names, mapped to districts by 2020 population; it is not attributed to the member and does not include leadership’s base-text money that names no place. Ranks are of district money per resident among the chamber’s districts, 1 = most. “In corrective clauses” is the part carried by a Ways and Means chair’s corrective amendments, which is leadership’s money; the last column gives the per-resident figure and rank without it. Sessions are labeled by the General Court that enacted each budget. Per-resident figures use the district as drawn for each session (2011 lines through the 192nd General Court, 2021 lines from the 193rd), so they will not equal a session’s dollars divided by the resident count above.

The same district on the other two measures, by session (enacted; includes any corrective-clause money)
SessionDistrictPlaced in the districtPer resident per budget, rankEverything placedPer resident per budget, rank
190th (2017–18)16th Essex$621,000$6.45 · 53rd of 160$621,000$6.45 · 58th of 160

Budget amendments

Juana B. Matias sponsored 22 budget amendments in FY2017–FY2026, asking for $1 million in all.

Amendments sponsored

22

FY2017–FY2026 budgets

Adopted, known outcomes

44%

8 of 18

Chamber rate, same ask sizes

59%

expected at the chamber’s rates

Of the 18 with a known outcome, eight were adopted (44%). At the chamber’s adoption rate for amendments of the same size, about 11 (59%) would have been.

Largest enacted items matched to an amendment Juana B. Matias filed (strong text matches)
YearAmountEnacted budget text (excerpt)Amendment
FY2019$50,000“the Lawrence Family Development Fund for a youth jobs program to employ at-risk youths of Lawrence”H4400 #1304
FY2019$50,000“the Food for the World, Inc”H4400 #1340
FY2019$35,000“Groundwork Lawrence Inc, to deliver hands-on STEM education for the youth of Lawrence for the purposes of expanding comprehensive services by…”H4400 #1327
FY2018$25,000“the Food for the World, Inc”H3600 #630

Strong matches: 4 enacted items, $160,000 (the member’s share where several amendments claim one clause). House attribution is inferred throughout, because the House adopts most amendments inside consolidated amendments.

14 outcomes are inferred by matching amendment text to the House’s consolidated amendments, because the House records most amendments only as “Consolidated A–G.” Ask size is the larger of the earmark dollars and the line-item change an amendment requests; bands: no dollar amount, under $50,000, $50,000–$250,000, $250,000–$1 million, $1–5 million, $5 million or more. Leadership’s unattributed base-text and corrective-amendment money is never assigned to a member. The comparison describes outcomes; it is not a measure of merit.

Bills sponsored

Juana B. Matias filed 5 bills as lead sponsor in these sessions; zero were enacted on their own. In completed sessions, 0% of their lead bills were enacted on their own, against a chamber median of 7% for the same sessions.

Most bills die in every legislature, and many policies pass inside other bills; the chamber median for the same session is the fair comparison.

Bills filed as lead sponsor, by session and outcome
SessionChamberLead billsSent to studyReported favorably, then diedEnacted rateChamber medianCosponsored
190th (2017–18)House5320%7%177

Outcomes are the furthest point each bill reached in the record. “Folded into an enacted bill” means the history names the enacted bill that absorbed it. “Passed both branches; no chapter recorded” means the bill was enacted by both branches and laid before the Governor, with no chapter or veto in the history; in the 194th General Court such bills are shown as laid before the Governor (pending). The 194th General Court is in session until January 2027, so its open bills are pending, not dead, and its rates (*) are not comparable with completed sessions. Chairs and leaders control the calendar, which raises their rates. Source: malegislature.gov bill histories.

Recorded votes on accountability measures

Juana B. Matias cast 21 yes-or-no votes on the 21 accountability roll calls in this file (four yes, 17 no).

Roll calls on rules, audits, public records, term limits and pay
DateMeasureVoteChamber result
January 25, 2017Recommit the 2017 pay-raise bill (H.58) to Ways and MeansNoYeas 35, nays 125
January 25, 2017Amd 3 (Lyons): legislators' raise not effective until next General CourtNoYeas 40, nays 120
January 25, 2017Amd 5 (Lyons): cap the increases at 4%NoYeas 36, nays 124
January 25, 2017Engrossment of the pay-raise bill (stipend increases)YesYeas 116, nays 44
January 26, 2017Enactment of the pay-raise billYesYeas 116, nays 43
February 2, 2017Override of Gov. Baker's veto of the pay-raise billYesYeas 116, nays 43
February 2, 2017Amendment 1.0 (Geoff Diehl): Text of the proposed House amendment (Representative Diehl) to the House Bill relative to Rank and File (House, No. 2017)NoYeas 34, nays 124
February 2, 2017Sustain the Chair's ruling (point of order, Mr. Mark) against Diehl amd 2, Speaker term limitsYesYeas 123, nays 33
February 2, 2017Amendment 3.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): 24 Hour Time Frame for Bills to Be Acted OnNoYeas 35, nays 124
February 2, 2017Amendment 4.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): Access to InformationNoYeas 35, nays 124
February 2, 2017Amendment 9.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): Emergency Scheduling of HearingsNoYeas 38, nays 121
February 2, 2017Amendment 10.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): Equal Representation on Ethics CommitteeNoYeas 35, nays 124
February 2, 2017Amendment 15.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): InoculatorsNoYeas 37, nays 122
February 2, 2017Amendment 16.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): Local Aid ResolutionNoYeas 38, nays 121
February 2, 2017Amendment 27.0 (James J. Lyons, Jr.): Defining and Limiting Informal SessionNoYeas 34, nays 124
February 2, 2017Amendment 20.0 (Shaunna L. O'Connell): Public access to House financial accounts auditsNoYeas 34, nays 125
February 2, 2017Amendment 21.0 (Shaunna L. O'Connell): Public access to committee votesNoYeas 41, nays 118
February 2, 2017Amendment 5.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): Local Aid ResolutionNoYeas 37, nays 122
February 2, 2017Amendment 11.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): Committee Roll Calls on WebsiteNoYeas 38, nays 121
February 2, 2017Amendment 13.0 (Bradley H. Jones, Jr.): Reports of Conference Filing DeadlineNoYeas 37, nays 122
February 2, 2017Amendment 14.0 (Shaunna L. O'Connell): Public access to committee votesNoYeas 38, nays 121

Votes marked “contested meaning” are rules-package and public-records passage votes; reform advocates were on both sides of them. Descriptions are the project’s plain summaries of each question, or the question as recorded for rules-package roll calls; the official record is on malegislature.gov. Votes are facts; no score is computed.

Campaign money in

Juana B. Matias’s committee reported $5,650 in contributions of $250 or more in years the member served, 2017–2018.

By year (years in the Legislature)
YearContributions
2017$3,100
2018$2,550
By kind of contributor
KindTotalShare
Individuals$4,60081%
Political committees and PACs$1,05019%
Individuals’ money by the employer they reported
Employer reportedShare
A named employer35%
Self-employed27%
Not employed11%
Not reported or withheld27%

The same committee also reported $30,000 in years the member was not in the Legislature (2016), for example while running for another office. Those receipts are not in the totals above.

Largest employers and organizations
Employer or organizationKindTotalContributions
TANARES TIREindividuals, by employer$8002
MA & NORTHERN NE LABORERS' DISTRICT COUNCIL POL ACTION COMMcommittee or PAC$5001
BODEGA JACQUELINE S POLLITOSindividuals, by employer$5001
BEER DISTRIBUTORS' PACcommittee or PAC$3001
JACQUELINE SUPERMARKETindividuals, by employer$3001
LOCAL 509 SERVICE EMPLOYEES INT'L UNION COMM ON POL ED MA WORKERS' POL ACTION COMMcommittee or PAC$2501

Source: Office of Campaign and Political Finance, itemized receipts of $250 or more since 2015; OCPF filer record: Matias Committee (CPF 15713). Individuals are grouped by the employer they reported; no individual contributor is named, and an employer field that is a person’s name is withheld. Massachusetts bars business contributions to candidates. Employer shows affiliation, not instruction.

Sources

Every figure traces to a public record.

Facts only: posts, stipends, sponsored amendments, enacted items, roll-call votes and district money. No score or grade is computed. Associations shown here are not evidence of cause. Method.